{"id":223962,"date":"2025-09-13T16:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223962\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:13:14","slug":"lakers-3-goals-gabe-vincent-needs-to-step-up-his-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223962\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers 3 goals: Gabe Vincent needs to step up his game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Training camp for the 2025-26 NBA season is approaching, and while the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> may not have a legitimate championship-caliber roster, they do appear to have one that can do some real damage.<\/p>\n

They have a number of players who seem to have upward potential, and if those players improve and fulfill their potential this season, perhaps the team can pleasantly surprise quite a few national pundits.<\/p>\n

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LeBron Wire is taking a look at the 14 players who are under standard contracts with the Lakers and giving three goals for each player. Here’s a look at guard Gabe Vincent, who has been seen by many fans as a disappointment through his first two seasons with the team.<\/p>\n

Become a consistent 3-point shooter<\/p>\n

Vincent came to the Lakers as a free agent in 2023 after a successful playoff run in which he averaged 12.7 points a game and shot 37.8% from the field while helping the Miami Heat reach the NBA Finals. But with the Lakers, his 3-point shooting has been wildly sporadic.<\/p>\n

Last season, he shot just over 44% from downtown in December and March, but in October, November, January and April, he was under 30% from that distance.<\/p>\n

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The Lakers need more non-stars who are reliable 3-point shooters in order to space the floor and open up more opportunities for Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. Vincent can help rectify that need if he’s been working on his outside shooting this summer, and if he does, he could become a legitimate 3-and-D player, which is something they badly need.<\/p>\n

Be an impactful point-of-attack defender<\/p>\n

Arguably the Lakers’ biggest need is a strong on-the-ball defender in the backcourt. Luckily, that is something Vincent can provide.<\/p>\n

He isn’t an elite defender, but he’s an above-average one who can stay with opposing ball handlers and fight through screens. As a result, when he’s hitting enough outside shots, he’s a valuable role player for Los Angeles because he can contribute in a positive manner on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

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He needs to make opposing guards feel him more often defensively and play with a little more physicality, but he should be able to do just that.<\/p>\n

Stay healthy<\/p>\n

Vincent lost almost all of his first season with the Lakers due to a knee ailment. While he appeared in 72 games last season, Lakers fans may still not fully trust him to be available on a consistent basis.<\/p>\n

Given the team’s lack of backcourt depth, there is more of a need for Vincent to be available than there may be for a few other bench players.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers 3 goals: Gabe Vincent needs to step up his game<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Training camp for the 2025-26 NBA season is approaching, and while the Los Angeles Lakers may not have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":223963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[17378,67077,8600,224,3141,3365,3120,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-223962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-gabe-vincent","10":"tag-lebron","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-luka-doncic","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115197876989266439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}